The present invention relates generally to the field of marketing and advertising. More specifically, the invention relates to an advertising method that utilizes a surface portion of a person""s body. In the fields of marketing and advertising, various attempts arc made to cost-effectively increase sales of goods and services. A particular advertisement or advertising campaign may be deemed successful if it results in an increase in sales and revenue, net of advertising costs. The question of whether a specific campaign is effective may be determined by evaluating its effect on customer loyalty, brand name recognition, brand name distribution and the like.
Marketing and advertising schemes are devised and broadly implemented in an effort to find the most effective and least costly way of increasing sales and revenue. Known attempts to gain the attention of consumers include catchy slogans, startling artwork, novelty items, contests, prizes, redeemable coupons and, in some cases, even the inclusion of token sums of money.
Display advertising is widely used because of its ability to reach a broad range of potential customers. Display advertising is generally limited, however, in the sense that an advertiser cannot accurately gauge the success of any particular display advertisement. For example, an advertiser may decide to place an advertisement on a billboard located alongside a busy highway. The return for the advertiser""s significant investment is the likelihood that many potential customers will see the billboard each day as they drive past it on the highway. From the advertiser""s perspective, the mere fact that many people see the advertisement serves as a basis for the hope that the ad is effective.
A particular advertiser may not, however, have any precise means for estimating how much business is developed due to a particular display advertisement. It may be difficult, for example, to know how many people have seen the advertisement. Moreover, it may be difficult to assess how many people, out of all those who see the advertisement, are potential customers for the advertised product or service. With display advertisements, a large percentage of people viewing a particular advertisement may have never used the product or service and/or will never use it despite having seen it advertised. This limitation of display advertisements can be attributed at least in part to the random composition of most advertising audiences.
Advertisements that advertise products or services that are targeted to a particular audience may be more effective. For example, sportswear companies may target potential customers at sporting arenas and stadiums, whereas cereal companies may advertise in supermarkets. Thus, advertisers and marketers have suggested various schemes to display advertisements to targeted or specialized groups of consumers. For example, a squeegee handle having polygonal sides may be used to provide display advertising space. An advertisement displayed on such a handle could be targeted to gasoline customers using a credit-card point of sale fuel pump terminal. A drawback with this type of advertising is that while the advertisement may be cost effective, it is not particularly eye-catching nor impressionable to the consumer. In fact, customers may be preoccupied with other activities and may not even notice the advertisement at all. For instance, a customer may be monitoring the amount of gasoline being purchased, washing the windshield, etc. Television advertising may be intended to be seen by a targeted group of potential consumers, but such advertising can be expensive, complicated and time-consuming to produce.
Further, it appears that a display advertisement is more effective if it is seen by the same person repeatedly. In that regard, advertisers have implemented various display advertisement schemes wherein an advertisement is appended to a useful item that is kept by a potential consumer for continued reference. For example, it has been suggested to provide a bulk-mail card bearing a display advertisement with useful information printed on a portion of the card, such that the card would be retained by its recipient for continued reference. A drawback with this system is that it is difficult for the advertiser to assess in advance whether the printed information will be deemed useful by each card recipient. In other words, there is no guarantee that the advertisement will be seen repeatedly by the targeted consumer. Similarly, with respect to known television advertising systems, a targeted potential customer may simply change the channel during the advertisement or be preoccupied with other activities and the advertisement may never be seen enough times or for a sufficient duration to have the desired impact.
Thus, a continuous need exists for a method of advertising that gains the attention of numerous consumers. Further, there is a need to provide advertising in an efficient manner to gain more sales per advertising dollar. Further, there is also a need to provide greater assurance that the advertisement will actually be seen by the potential customers, considering the duration and repetition of the advertisement.
The present invention provides an improved advertising system. The new system is eye-catching and capable of efficiently reaching a very large number of targeted people repeatedly (or for an extended duration), but yet, is very cost-effective. The invention may be employed to provide greater assurance to the advertiser that the advertisement is actually seen by the desired audience. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a person""s back is used as a support for the advertisement. The human back skin surface area (particular, the back surface that extends over and between the shoulder blades) may be ideally exposed, broad and planar for affixing and displaying the advertisement.
According to one aspect of the invention, the advertisement may be provided on the person""s back for display during a sporting/entertainment event which is broadcast to a large audience through audio/visual media such as television. According to one aspect of the invention, the event is a boxing match and the advertisement is affixed directly on the boxer""s back. The advertisement is sufficiently large such that it is legible and comprehensible to the viewing audience. Also, the advertisement is affixed utilizing a material which is removable but yet resistant to smudging from physical contact and/or perspiration.